The present invention relates to the field of devices used to connect personal computers to other devices and, more specifically, to an electrical device that attaches to the sound card input jack of a personal computer that allows direct connection to home audio equipment without disconnection of the computer sound output equipment.
With the advent of high quality stereo sound being placed over the Global Information Network computer users are now able to listen to radio stations from around the world, and extremely high quality digitally recorded and transmitted music can now be downloaded from a variety of sources that is growing every day. This has brought on a proliferation of computer speaker and sound systems that plug into the mini stereo jack (3.5 mm) universally found on soundcards in personal computers. However, when a listener wants to listen to this high quality music on his or her own home stereo equipment, they must first disconnect the computer speakers, then arrange multiple adapters to reconfigure the mini stereo plug found on personal computers, to the high quality RCA cables associated with home audio equipment.
This constant connecting and disconnecting can be frustrating for the typical user who may have to struggle with numerous other cables and wires coming from the back of the typical computer in order to reach the soundcard output jack. The constant connecting and disconnecting can easily lead to system failure by damaging the connections of the female soundcard stereo jack.
This device solves this problem by allowing a user to insert this adapter permanently into the female jack of the personal computer soundcard and then connect the computer speakers to the adapter and have left and right stereo RCA cables, which are also available to connect any variety of home audio equipment to the personal computer.
A number of patents in the prior art disclose various computer audio interfaces but none have the simplicity and ease of use of the invention disclosed herein.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,939 issued to Brown on Jul. 7, 1998, titled xe2x80x9cInterface Assembly for Peripheral Accessoriesxe2x80x9d discloses an accessory connector and adaptor assembly that utilizes a connection to the reference voltage line of the interface between a personal computer and its keyboard or other accessory, thereby avoiding the need to provide an independent power supply circuit for peripheral devices and accessories such as a microphone, speakers or the like. The adapter assembly is configured with a first interface having, by way of illustrative example, a male connector portion dimensioned for insertion into the keyboard port or PS2 port of a personal computer, and a female connector portion dimensioned to accommodate the male termination of a conventional keyboard cable. The adapter assembly further includes a second interface for providing power to the one or more external peripheral devices. By way of illustrative example, the second interface may include one or more jacks, male or female, to accommodate the terminating connector of a cable associated with one or more audio speakers and/or a loudspeaker. As a further example, a first connector of second interface will connect to an audio peripheral input located at the rear of a processing unit of the computer, and an accessory conductor plug of a microphone will connect to a second connector.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,425, issued to Morisawa, et al. on Nov. 12, 1996, titled xe2x80x9cCommunication Cable Used in a Computer Systemxe2x80x9d discloses a communication cable used to connect a peripheral device to a computer that has a first cable, a second cable and a patch unit. The first cable encloses a set of power lines and a set of data lines; the second cable also encloses a set of data lines. The patch unit includes a socket with first and second contacts. In the patch unit, the sets of data lines of the first and second cables are connected. One of the power lines is connected to the first contact, and another of the power lines is connected to the second contact. The first cable connects the patch unit with the peripheral device, and the second cable connects the patch unit with the computer. When power is applied from an external source to the first and second contacts, the power is supplied from the first and second contacts to the peripheral device.
As the above background reveals, there is a need for a device that enables the user of a personal computer to connect the audio output of the computer to home audio equipment without disconnecting the computer audio output equipment, that is convenient and easy to use.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to supply a simple device that combines male and female mini stereo jacks with RCA cables such that a personal computer user can permanently connect home audio equipment and computer audio equipment at the same time.
The invention is an improvement over the prior art consisting of an adapter for connection into the audio output jack (mini stereo jack) of a personal computer, such that the adapter, having a male mini stereo jack for connection into the PC sound board, makes a direct connection to dual RCA output cables for connection to other audio equipment; and also having a female mini stereo jack for reception of standard PC sound equipment such that home audio equipment can be easily hooked up to the PC without disconnecting the PC audio equipment.